Immediately after the humanitarian disaster which followed the earthquake and tsunami that devastated large areas in Asia, the Saudi government announced a donation of $10 million. A few days later, the donation was increased threefold to $30 million as the magnitude of the tragedy became clearer. This was in turn followed by a telethon on Saudi Television last week which raised more than $82 million in cash as well as enormous quantities of much needed assistance in kind.
All of this is of course very good news. In my opinion, however, it should be even better news; we have not done enough. The assistance so far given has not put the Kingdom where it deservedly belongs as the leader of the Muslim world. The scale of the disaster is beyond our comprehension and it has prompted other countries to promise donations in the hundreds of millions of dollars. To be sure, it is not all altruistic as there are surely some hidden objectives but in the end, service to humanity remains the driving force behind the quick and sustained response.
Now is the chance for Saudi Arabia, a country too often thought of only in terms of oil and terrorism, to present its true nature to the world. Its nature is one of love, compassion and sacrifice when it comes to serving humanity. Saudi Arabia follows the teachings of Islam, the religion that urges its followers to give others preference over themselves even though poverty be their lot. Because of these facts, I hope the government will raise its official donations to the tsunami victims to $1 billion. In addition, I would like to see popular donations reach another $1 billion.
So far, the world has pledged $4 billion and the figure goes up every day. It would be heartening for us to see another billion coming from the Kingdom and it would also show the world that we can do more than just talk of compassion and mercy.
Let the money be taken from our new 2005 budget; let it increase our public debt; let it come from any other source. What is important is to show the world that we care and that we are ready to sacrifice for the sake of suffering men, women and children. Some will argue that there are poor and unemployed among us and that large sums are needed to assist them and also for our own development projects. True indeed but we are, after all, a nation of values and principles. The world should learn the truth about us and in order for this to happen, we must be ready to make sacrifices.
Tragedies of the magnitude of the one we have seen in Asia should make us among the first to offer aid and consolation. We must work to earn the world’s respect and gratitude. If we launched a thousand public relations campaigns to improve our image abroad, they could not produce one percent of what was achieved by the successful surgery in Riyadh last week to separate the Polish twins. The tsunami disasters should motivate each one of us to do more in order to project the true picture of this country, its people and our religion.
